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Living Wage in Home Care

There have been many changes to the way that domiciliary carers are paid in recent years and every change that has happened in the sector has made the pay and conditions better for carers. At Radfield Home Care we have been ahead of the changes every step of the way as we have always valued our staff and wanted to provide them with excellent pay and working conditions for them.

Carers must be paid for the time that they spend travelling as this is classed as working time. They must also accrue holiday allowance on the travel time as well as time spent actually caring for clients.

The introduction of the Living Wage now means that home carers should be paid more than ever before. Many employers still use a 'rolled up' rate to which means that carers get paid what seems to be a higher hourly rate but then they don't get paid anything for their travel time in addition. This is a perfectly fine way of paying carers as long as they are being paid at least the living wage when you 'unroll' the rate to include the time spent travelling.

At Radfield Home Care we do not use rolled up rates as we want our carers to know and understand how much they are being paid for the work that they do. So our hourly rate is paid for the time spent with clients and there is a separate payment made for each journey between clients homes to cover the time spent travelling. Holiday is accrued for both the time spent working with clients AND the time spent travelling between clients. Carers also receive tax free mileage payments for each mile they drive.

We have created this visual guide to help you work out whether you are being paid enough as a rolled up rate to meet the Living Wage